Create a Modern Thanksgiving Centerpiece with Fresh Flowers

If you would like to make your own stunning Thanksgiving centerpiece this year, this project would be perfect for you. This design style is fresh, young, and far more appropriate for modern Thanksgiving celebrations than the traditional candle centerpieces or shapeless mounds of fall flowers.

Your guests will be awed by your skills and sense of style when you create this contemporary design to decorate your Thanksgiving table.

What you will need:

Scissors or garden shears

Wire cutters

A kitchen knife - A big bread knife or butcher's knife will work best to trim any excess floral foam.

A bucket, tub, sink, or big bowl full of cool water

Decorative wire - Decorative wire can be found at most craft stores. You can substitute raffia or decorative cording.

One long and low, watertight container - Your choice of containers for this design should be roughly between eight and nine inches long and six or less inches tall. Shorter is better.

One block of green florist foam for cut flowers - Blocks of florist foam are available in most craft stores or florist shops. Be sure to get the kind designed for fresh cut flowers.

Eight orange roses

Four pieces of lily grass

Three stems of orange lilies

Six stems of hypericum berries

Two stems of salal foliage

Three stems of seeded eucalyptus

Most of these items can be found at your local floral shop or craft store. If you can't find all of them, most florists can make some good suggestions for locally available substitutes.

Directions:

Unwrap the block of florist foam and set it in the bucket, tub, sink or big bowl of cool water. Allow it to sink on its own. Do not press it down as this will leave air pockets inside the foam which means your flowers may not be in water when you use it.

Once the block of foam has sunk completely into the water and appears fully wet push it into the container. Trim off any excess foam from the ends of the block with a kitchen knife but keep the block big enough so it fits tightly inside your container.

Cut all eight roses to approximately one foot in length using scissors or garden shears. Remove all of the thorns from the roses with scissors or garden shears. Remove all but the top cluster of leaves from the roses and leave their lower stems bare.

Insert the roses into the floral foam, keeping them straight up and down in the container. Push the stems all the way to the bottom of the container through the foam. Use four roses evenly space along the length of the container on each side of it.

Cut the salal branches into short pieces and poke them into the floral foam in the container working to cover it with leaves. Then cut the seeded eucalyptus into pieces and poke it into the foam, covering as much of it as possible.

Now, cut the blooms from the stems of lilies, leaving as much stem as possible on each bloom. Insert the lilies into the floral foam spacing the blooms throughout the design evenly.

Cut the six stems of hypericum berries so their stems are about three inches long then insert them into the foam, spacing them throughout the design evenly.

Now take your decorative wire, raffia, or cording and tie or bend one end to a rose on the corner just beneath the bloom. Wind the wire, raffia, or cord between the roses and loop it around each one, first going down one side then to the other. Bring it around to the first rose you tied it to and cut it off, leaving enough to tie or bend around the last rose.

Cut both ends of each piece of lily grass at a slant using scissors or garden shears. Push first one end of a piece of lily grass into the foam securely then push the other end into the foam, creating a kind of loop or arch. Repeat this until you've used all four pieces, spacing them around the design evenly.

Water the centerpiece, wipe off any water or foam that may have gotten on the bottom of the container and enjoy your centerpiece.

To make your Thanksgiving floral design last longer check out the tips in this article: Fresh Flower Care for Floral Arrangements and Cut Flowers